Almond-Cinnamon Cookies

This past weekend I had my coworker Brittany over for a crochet lesson, a cup of tea, and fresh baked cookies. Angela came home as the cookies were baking and I gave her a crochet lesson as well (Man, I should start charging for this, lol!), and they both picked it up really quickly. Angela's about halfway through a wide bright yellow and green scarf made from Sugar and Cream cotton yarns. Brittany's been practicing swatches in hopes of making her boyfriend a scarf from some ArtFibers yarn we've lovingly dubbed Pirates vs. Ninjas. It's actually called Marble Cheesecake #5, but if you take a look at it you can see why it conjures up images of pirates and ninjas. Anywho, I made the cookies totally on the fly, improvising a recipe and hoping for the best, and I think they came out very well. I unfortunately don't have a pic because they're long gone, the darn cat even managed to eat one while we weren't looking! They're very soft and cakey, almost more like a muffin top than a cookie, but they hold up well in a cup of milk, my favorite! And the recipe makes a lot of them too. If anyone tries the recipe please let me know what you think, it's the first time I've ever made a cookie recipe appear out of thin air!

Almond-Cinnamon Cookies

3 1/3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 1/2 sticks room temperature unsalted butter

1 2/3 plus 2 tbsp sugar

2 large eggs

12 oz. package slivered almonds

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 scant cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy, add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.

3. Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, and cinnamon.

4. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating it with adding the milk.

5. Fold in the package of slivered almonds and chill the dough for 30 minutes.

6. Scoop generous spoonfulls of cookie dough onto the parchment lined sheets, mine were about 1-2 tbsp. Give cookies at least 3 inches of space from one another on the cookie sheet, they will spread out!

7. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden around the edges only. If you like you can sprinkle them with a pinch of sanding sugar when they first come out of the oven, it gives them a nice crunch to contrast with the cakey texture. Hope you like them!